Trey was born in Florence, South Carolina on January 19th, 1969. His father is Lloyd Lorenz, the director of a local job-training program and his mother Bernice, a history teacher at local Wilson High. Both parents and Trey sang in church. Trey learned to read music through a brief stretch of piano lessons.
During his freshman and sophomore years lending vocals and keyboards to the Players, a Top 40 band whose set list rambled from the Romantics to the Ramones.
When Trey met Mariah Carey, he was in his junior year at Farleigh Dickinson University, majoring in advertising, and he had been in a group called "Squeak & the Deep," but only lasted a short time; Trey says "we were only together for a minute!"
"I met Trey in February 1990," says Carey, "when I was working on my first album. I was recording a song called "There’s Got To Be A Way," and one of the backup singers was friends with Trey and had brought him down to the studio for the session. I heard someone singing all the high, top notes with me and I’m like, ‘Who is that?’ I turned around and it was Trey. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Since then Trey has been touring with Mariah Carey as her backup singer, since her first promotional tour in 1990, for her debut album, ‘Mariah Carey.’
Not only touring, Trey has written songs with Mariah and they have become very close friends.
Trey shot to fame in 1992 when sang with Mariah on ‘MTV Unplugged.’ Trey did his normal back-up singing for Mariah, but on he stepped up to do a duet with Mariah Carey on the song "I’ll Be There." Trey displayed his incredible falsetto, soaring to one of the highest notes a male can sing (to see more about this go to the "High Notes, section). The show was turned into a home video and a CD and helped him rise so success.
Soon after Trey signed a record deal with Mariah Carey’s then husband, Tommy Matola, under the EPIC Label. He recorded his self-titled debut album ‘Trey Lorenz,’ and released the CD to critically acclaim. Unfortunately, the album never had good sales and Trey was dropped from EPIC. At one time he recorded another album, but it was never released.
Trey has continued to sing with Mariah Carey. He has co-written songs for Mariah’s album and continued to do background vocals. Trey toured with Mariah in 1998, singing "Let’s Make This A Night To Remember," with Mariah’s other backup singer Melanie Daniels. Trey also toured with Mariah on her "Rainbow Tour," in 1999 and then again in 2003 on the "Charmbraclet Tour," singing "I’ll Be There," and leading the background singers in a song called "Friend of Mine."
Trey Lorenz sings backup vocals on Mariah Carey’s latest album ‘The Emancipation of Mimi.’ Trey vocals are featured on four songs: ‘Get Your Number,’ ‘I Wish You Knew,’ ‘Joy Ride,’ & ‘Fly Like A Bird.’ Trey has been present on the promotional tour for the album. He has appeared singing background vocals at Mariah’s concert on Good Morning America. Trey was also featured on the VH1’s Save The Music special where he closed out the show singing I’ll Be There with Mariah Carey.
In April of 2005, AOL’s BlackVoices interviewed Mariah Carey was asked "Will Trey Lorenz or any of your other old friends be signed to your label?" "You know what? Trey is on a lot of songs on the new album. He’s like family to me at this point. He’s really doing his own thing right now; a lot of writing, and an inspirational project he’s working on. So I’m all about supporting him in whatever thing he’s working."